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PREVIEW

Its only week 8 but its safe to say that with a win tonight the Saints can effectively cement their position atop the NFC South. The Saints (6-0 ) hold a two game lead over the Falcons (4-2 ), the only other threat in this division. If the Falcons do pull off the win, it leaves the Colts as the only undefeated team in the league, and would make the race in the NFC South a little more interesting down the road.

The Falcons have their hands full tonight. The Saints are not just lethal with the Brees led aerial attack, but can do equal damage with the run game. The already exposed secondary of the Falcons will need their “A” game to keep a team that has scored 45-plus points in four of their first six games. On offense the Falcons still are not getting the production they need from their ground game. Michael Turner has run for only 80 yards on 31 carries in his last two games, and when he’s not doing well, Matt Ryan just gets overloaded with pressure he is not ready for. The last 2 games spell out the issue – Ryan is completing only 55.8% of his passes (38 of 68) for 383 yards, 4 TD’s, and 4 INT’s.

The Saints’ rush D is only allowing 92.3 yards per game, and their pass D has a league leading 13 interceptions – 6 by Darren Sharper, who has been playing out of his mind. The Saints offense is a thing of beauty. They have lit up the scoreboard in their last 2 games, Drew Brees is playing like an MVP candidate, and their rushing offense is averaging 154.5 yards per game. Opponents cannot just contain Brees, as both RB’s Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas give the Saints a 1-2 punch out of the backfield that is hard to stop. Both of Brees’ main targets are averaging over 15 yards per reception and the line is doing a great job giving Brees time to hit them with the passes.

The Saints will likely lose at some point, but it shouldn’t be tonight. The Falcons may give the Saints a tough time especially if the defense can pick up the big plays. In the end though, there are just too many options to see the Saints cough one up at home under the lights on Monday Night Football.

1. Falcons and Patriots – I picked the Falcons because I couldn’t get myself to root for the Pats. Why? I don’t know. Why do some people hate Lakers or Yankees? It may be the Epic Fumble Fail from the Bills – Pats game – or the fact that Tom Brady had people shot at his wedding. Somebody tried to convince me on Twitter, that Tom Brady is kind of girls’ favorite, but I didn’t buy it. C’mon, he always looks so bored during the games, with his cold stares and perpetual screaming at his receivers! I wouldn’t let anybody scream at me! Unfortunately, either the screaming helped or his bored face was just a poker bluff as Pats pulled out the win 26-10, which meant 0-1 for Kat’s picks.

2. Saints and Bills – I have made it no secret that the Bills are my team, I really like them. Did a little research, saw several games already and read a huge Football Preview magazine, so I knew, what we were facing. Drew Brees appeared as a fantasy football player’s wet dream, so I figured he would be scoring loads on the Bills. But as the Saints’ defense wasn’t the best I trusted that we might out-shoot them somehow. (Do you say ‘out-shoot’ like in basketball?) So I expected lots of touchdowns, and lots of fun. And I simply believed that I could just WILL the Bills into victory. Non-surprisingly Saints scored a TD in first 2 minutes and not long after that Bills got theirs. That was fantastic – they basically faked a field goal and planted a TD on surprised Saints. And then, I felt that something clicked, when my mild interest in the game started turning into love… Of course it had to turn into bitter tears in the end, as it was also the last good moment for the Bills, who decided to fold after that. Although they stopped the magical powers of Brees, they had no answers for the running back Pierre Thomas. Or should I say – flying back, cause it looked like that. Terrell Owens didn’t catch a single thing for the first time since his rookie season and Fred Jackson’s 71 yards didn’t help very much. Saints 27-7, Kat 0-2.

3. Colts – Cardinals. I don’t really like the Colts, so I didn’t root for them. But, after watching them for the second time, I figured out that Peyton Manning is simply a wild beast. I wonder if they only release him for the games and cage him in-between, because he is scary. He threw for 4 TDs! C’mon! Colts 31-10, Kat 0-3.

For the games I didn’t actually watch, Sunday looked like this:

1. Lions over Redskins 19-14. Well, Lions deserved a win, finally.

2. Packers over Rams 36-17. Packers are my second favorite team. Poor Aaron Rodgers had been sacked about 10 times heading in. Good for them.

3. Vikings over 49ers 27-24. Wow, saved by Grandpa Favre’s heroics and his TD pass with 2 seconds left. I saw the end of this game and it had the basketball buzzer beater quality. Freak-tastic!

4. Jets over Titans 24-17. I liked the Jets in this match-up. They are likable, Sanchez is likable. Look at this rook – he started his first 3 games and won all of them, like nobody else before. I was informed via Twitter that Jets were like 14-0 in the first quarter, then my source became quiet, so I guess the Jets blew they lead. But they held on long enough to pull out the win.

5. Eagles over Chiefs 34-14. Eagles are a better team, even without McNabb. Vick didn’t even have to put any significant numbers on the stat sheet. Talking about Vick, I found this in Sports Illustrated: ‘An animal-rescue group will donate five bags of dog food to a Washington D.C. shelter for every time Michael Vick is tackled when the Redskins play the Eagles next month.’ Beware, Mike!

6. Giants over Bucs 24-0. Giants are pretty good, Bucs are not. But to completely shut them down? Wow.

7. Raven over Browns 34-3. Browns are a really bad team. But, hey you can always cheer for Cavs when you’re form Cleveland!

8.  Jaguars over Texans 31-24. Jaguars wanted their first victory and Texan’s horrible defense delivered it to them.

9. Bears over Seahawks 25-19. Cutler debuted miserably, so he had to show up to redeem himself.

10. Bengals over Steelers 23-20. Not having Troy Polamalu and his curls must really suck for Pittsburgh.

11. Broncos over Raiders 23-3. No Cutler, no problem. Orton can make it – Denver is 3-0 already.

12. Chargers over Dolphins 23-13. Dolphins suck. 0-3 for the third time in six seasons.

For Monday night I am picking the Panthers over Cowboys. I cannot like anything George Bush thinks is good.